World In A Grain Of Rice - Brief Article

RICE, SAYS VANDANA SHIVA, IS MORE THAN JUST A FOODSTUFF; IT IS AN ENTIRE CULTURE. AND IT'S UNDER THREAT.

IN INDIA, RICE is often called 'Prana' -- the breath of life. In Japan, rice is a metaphor for the self. All over Asia, wherever rice is a food staple, such comparisons can be found, for rice is much more than a source of calories in Asian culture -- it is also the basis of both biological and cultural diversity. Rice represents many things for the people of Asia, from culture, history landscape, religious and social ideas.

In parts of India, on the first day of a new agricultural cycle, farmers exchange paddy seeds and offer them to the village deity. At harvest time, rice is worshipped as the goddess of wealth -- Dhanalakshmi. The word for rice, gift and wealth is 'dhana'. And because rice is the real wealth of the rice farmers of Asia, they have always defended it. After the great Bengal famine of 1942, which killed two million people, peasants refused to allow the British to take their rice. 'We will give our lives, but not our rice' was the call of the peasant uprising of the Trbhaga movement.

Rice, in other words, to many of the people of Asia, is life itself. And this is why the ongoing corporatisation of rice varieties is such a tragedy.

Rice evolved as a food source in Asia, in many and varied forms. Recently though, the globalisation and corporatisation of agriculture has had serious effects on that diversity India, for example, had nearly 200,000 rice varieties until that rich genetic diversity was destroyed by the chemicals and machines of the Green Revolution. The Green Revolution's scientists 'built' India new rice varieties to replace the thousands it destroyed; but in doing so, they also created 40 new insect pests and 12 new diseases for rice farmers to cope with. The net result; a worse life for farmers, and fewer varieties of rice.

As the Green Revolution miracle fades, the world's technocrats are preparing its second wave: genetic modification. We have recently heard of vitamin A rice -- or 'Golden Rice' -- being proclaimed as a miracle cure for blindness. More than $100 million has been spent over 10 years to produce this transgenic rice at the Institute of Plant Sciences in Zurich. The Zurich team introduced three genes taken from daffodils and bacteria into a rice strain, to produce a yellow rice with high levels of beta-carotene, which is converted to Vitamin A within the body.

Now, plans have been drawn up for a transfer of Golden Rice to India. And for what? Vitamin A rice is likely to fail in preventing blindness, since it will meet less than 1 per cent of the required daily intake. Ninety-nine per cent of Vitamin A will still have to be provided from alternatives which already exist, such as green leafy vegetables and fruits coriander leaves, curry leaves, drumstick leaves, amaranth leaves -- staples of the Indian diet.

In fact, as ever with such 'miracle' technologies, Golden Rice is based on a false premise. The destruction of biodiversity by industrial agriculture is a primary cause of today's Vitamin A deficiency across rural India, and it is only through rejuvenating biodiversity on our farms that we can solve problems of vitamin deficiency and malnutrition. In spite of all the hype about Golden Rice, it will not solve the Vitamin A deficiency problems.

Elsewhere, the colonisation of rice by powerful interests goes on unhindered -- and one of its key weapons is the patent system. The most stunning example of cultural imperialism yet was when Rice-tee, a US-based corporation, claimed the famous Indian basmati to be its 'invention' -- patent number 566484. Strong campaigns across India maybe starting to force this corporation into a retreat, but it will not be the last such absurdity. Such acts are the appropriation of nature's regeneration processes and the indigenous innovation by rice farmers of Asia over centuries. It is blatant biopiracy.

Today, those who care about the future of Asia must recognise the importance of rice in the formation of these societies--and in their future. And that rice must be owned and controlled by the small farmers -- the people -- and not by foreign corporations with no interest in or understanding of it. The cry must go up to liberate rice from corporate control through chemical-free, GM-free, patent-free rice farming. Thousands of farmers are already showing that growing rice organically can produce more food and nutrition, not just for humans but for all species who share our planet with us. It can be done.

Rice has always been a symbol of abundance. Now we must work to prevent it becoming a symbol of scarcity That is why, in India, we have conserved and rejuvenated more than 2,000 rice varieties through our 'Navdanya' movement. As a result, the thapachui, the ghyasu, the shalnaj are once again prospering in farmers' fields.

No corporation can reproduce the amazing diversity of rice that nature and peasants have evolved in partnership over millennia -- rice that grows up to 18 feet to survive floods, rice that is salt- and drought-tolerant, rice that is aromatic and therapeutic. This diversity and the knowledge and culture it embodies, is the real basis for future food security. We must fight to keep rice free -- in all its amazing diversity. Because on the freedom of rice depends the freedom of millions of Third World farmers.

Vandana Shiva is director of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, in New Delhi, India, and a prominent environmental activist.

COPYRIGHT 2000 MIT Press Journals
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group